Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 3

SR No.: 522603
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: R P Poddar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur
Publication Year: 1982
Total Pages: 294
Language: English, Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin, & India
File Size: 6 MB

Page 10

THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF NON-VIOLENCE
Dr. VISHWANATH PRASAD VARMA 1. Tolstoy and Gandhi
Leo Tolstoy ( 1828-1910 ) was not only the author of the epochmaking novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina but was also leading religious philosopher and teacher. He was intensely catholic in his studies of religion and was receptive to the teachings of Moses, Solomon, Buddha, Confucius and Schopenhauer. Against the pretensions of the Russiin Orthodox Church he stood for the simple and devout teachings of the New Testament. He was hostile to the absolutism and militarism of the Russian state. He was against war. He had witnessed the miseries brought about by the Crimean War and he stood for the complete elimination of violence and patriotism. He advocated the cultivation of the virtues of simplicity, devotion to God and the felicities of a life of manual labor. He condemned all ostentation and exhibitionism and ridiculed the builders and planners of the Eiffel Tower of Paris. In his literary views he had the boldness to write against the snobberies of Shakespeare and Goethe.
Tolstoy in his The Kingdom of God is Within you, took Christ's prescription of non-resistance to evil as an absolute indubitable truth. He refers to Chelcicky, the fifteenth century Czech, the author of the book The Net of Faith William Lloyd Garison, Adin Ballou, Dymond (the author of On War, 1824 ), Deniel Musser (the author of On Non-resistance, 1864 ), George Fox, William Penn, the Moravian Brethren, the Waldenses, the Albigenses, the Bogomiles, the Paulicians, the Mennonites of Germany and the Doukhobors of Russia who also absolutely accepted the principle of non-resistance to evil by violence.
In the early years of his life in South Africa, Gandhi read Tolstoy's book The Kingdom of God is Within You. He says that he was "overwhelmed” by this book. It left a permanent impression on his mind and character and in his Autobiography Gandhi has eloquently praised "the independent thinking, profound morality, and the truthfulness of this book." Subsequently Gandbi also read Tolstoy's The Gospel in Brief What Then Must We Do ?
Gandhi has acknowledged his deep debt to Tolstoy. In a letter 1. Published in 1893. 2. M. K. Gandhi, Autobiography ( 1927 ed. ), Vol. I, p. 322,